214 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



The bread revealed new qualities in the wheat, it wa 

 BO sweet and nutty ; and the fried potatoes, with 

 which your beef-steak comes snowed under, are the 

 very flower of the culinary art, and I believe impossi- 

 ble in any other country. 



Even the ruins are in excellent taste, and are by 

 far the best-behaved ruins I ever saw for so recent 

 ones. I came near passing some of the most noted 

 during my first walk without observing them. The 

 main walls were all standing, and the fronts were as 

 imposing as ever. No litter or rubbish, no charred 

 timbers or blackened walls, only vacant windows and 

 wrecked interiors, which do not very much mar the 

 general outside effect. 



My first genuine surprise was the morning after my 

 arrival, which, according to my reckoning, was Sun- 

 day ; and when I heard the usual week-day sounds, 

 and, sallying forth, saw the usual week-day occupa- 

 tions going on, painters painting, glaziers glazing, 

 masons on their scaffolds, etc., and heavy drays and 

 market- wagons goinr/ ihrough the streets, and many 

 shops and bazaars open, I must have presented to 

 a scrutinizing beholder the air and manner of a man 

 in a dream, so absorbed was I in running over the 

 events of the week to find where the mistake had 

 occurred, where I had failed to turn a leaf, or else 

 had turned over two leaves for one. But each day 

 had a distinct record, and every count resulted the 

 same. It must be Sunday. Then it all dawned 

 tpon me that this was Paris, and that the Parisians 



